~ Thinking outside the box about Cambodia

On the bank of Sésane River

On the bank of Sésane River, while the people were having a nap, two neighboring friends met and were chatting nonchalantly and watching the water flowing and overflowing massively during the raining season.

Stôang: Do you miss your family?Léav: Yeah, quite a bit. Since April, the 30 other soldiers and I are not allowed to take leave.Stôang: I heard from the radio that your government has ordered all of you to withdraw immediately.Léav: To withdraw is as easy as to come here and occupy this patch of your land. We can come in and go out anytime, you guys leave the border open all the times.Stôang: Why did you come then?Léav: Look, when you go out, do you lock your door or leave it open?Stôang: I always lock the door, and hope to get back home before the burglar!Léav: You’re smart. But at the borders your guys leave the door open.Stôang: That’s very embarrassing: 30 soldiers could just walk in and occupy a patch of land without any resistance or opposition.Léav: I’m just a soldier and follow my chief’s order. But, my guys and I, we know our national duties and understand our chief’s policy.Stôang: How long did you plan to stay then?Léav: As long as it takes until it becomes part of our land.Stôang: Isn’t it then an invasion or a violation of our territorial sovereignty?Léav: You can use those buzz words as long as you wish, but you have to know that sovereignty must be protected in order for it to be respected and not to be violated. Without actual and effective protection, sovereignty is purely naked.Stôang: But you can’t just walk in and settle in and down?Léav: Why not? You don’t lift your little finger to stop us! Your absence is a tacit invitation.Stôang: And then, what do you plan to do on that patch of land?LéaLéav: Personally, I don’t know because it’s not my domain; but I’ve seen guys in construction business coming around with their stuff.Stôang: That’s why the guy from my capital flew in to see your guy at your capital and with an ultimatum in his hand.Léav: You’re right! “Ultimatum,” after 5 months! Jello ultimatum, it is. Where has he been? Sleeping? Sick in Lion City?Stôang: Well, communications are slow between the border and the city.Léav: Look, between the two of us, who is in the position of strength: 30 soldiers and I, or ultimatum man?Stôang: Guess it’s you; invader imposes his will.Léav: The “invaded” flew to my capital to deliver an ultimatum five months after the occupation! Is there any joke more insane than this one?Stôang: Don’t be too sarcastic.Léav: Sorry, got carried away with all that nonsense.Stôang: Nonsense? That many?Léav: For example: in my capital, since the US left in 1973, we’ve had different PMs, and our leadership is renewed all the time. Look what’s going on in yours: same guy for 33 years. “Nonsense” is that we know in advance every move he’s going to make, even in the middle of the night!Stôang: You spy!Léav: No, it’s psychology 101! What can a man sitting on power for 33 years could invent as new tricks?!Stôang: What else?Léav: Oh, You move the troops from 500kms away to challenge us here with the ultimatum. Press, TV, Facebook, gossip, everybody knows it, sees it, records it. Did he read “Sunzi: The art of warfare”【孙子兵法】？Stôang: Hope he has, he who makes war for his whole life from KR time to today.Léav: My guess is he might have read it, but understands nada. He can fool you, but definitely can’t fool us.Stôang: Wondering how much longer we could let ourselves be fooled by him. So, you must have other plans of invasion.Léav: Don’t know. My boss decides. But with such an easiness that 30 soldiers could cross, occupy and settle, I don’t want to imagine how far down South could 30 multiplied by x times could go.Stôang: Did you consult Noï before coming here?Léav: The only thing I can tell you is that Noï is pissed off with the ultimatum man’s coziness with Northern Capital.Stôang: Why?Léav: There is a biblical saying: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”Stôang: Are you not Buddhist?Léav: I’m Budhhist, but I also read and learn other religions.Stôang: Where’s that from?Léav: Matthew 6:24Stôang: Anything Asian for that matter?Léav: The Chinese say: 一仆难事二主 (yī pú nán shì èr zhu). Same meaning: No man can serve two masters.Stôang: OK, time is up. Have a safe return home.Léav: Likewise! Oh, by the way, stop “bolting the stable door after the horse has been stolen.”